After Iris Koh was done filing police reports against the police for seizing her assistants’ computers and phones for evidence gathering and bullying her staff and volunteers to induce statements out of them, the 49-year-old founder of the anti-vaccine Group Healing the Divide has finally found the time to sit down to make an explanation video.
A 12-minute-long video on her Telegram group to be exact, to expound on the trauma she went through during her 15-day remand and the charges that were supposedly falsely laid against her.
And also crowdfund $100,000 for her legal fees.
Koh adds that the crowdfunded money will go towards the criminal case, and should the charges be dropped (highly unlikely), they will be re-directed towards causes within Healing the Divide (HTD).
First: The Sob Story
At the start of the video, Koh apologised for tearing up the police statements and states that she has submitted a four-page written statement to the events leading up to lashing out.
From her perspective, the 15 days in police custody had been traumatising as she had suffered greatly, and she had been mentally tormented during the investigations, hence her tantrum throwing at the papers.
“I am always willing to cooperate with the investigations,” said Koh, “If they were done objectively without any assumption of guilt or perversion of justice.”
Not going to lie, but we probably all saw the ‘but’ and conditional cooperation coming a mile away.
Her track record of stubbornness remains with the public vividly, especially when you can file reports against your investigative officer during the investigations.
Nonetheless, it doesn’t deter her from talking about her plight thus far, of the tremendous pressure that the situation has place her and her family under, the sacrifices she has made, and the close friends she has lost along the way.
Ms Koh, you should write a book, you seem to have a talent for it.
Experience in Singapore General Hospital
Iris Koh extends her thanks towards the staff and doctors at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) since they have been very professional and kind.
During her stay at SGH, she had been diagnosed with Graves’ Disease—an autoimmune disorder caused by hyperthyroidism—but she claims that the 5-day stay at the hospital had been fraught with mental and physical agony.
Koh also turns her attention towards the police officers’ treatment of the suspects.
Koh said: “They made me shit and pee next to my bed during my SGH stay, and did not allow me to go to the proper toilet, declined me of even using the sink just a few steps from my bed, and did not allow me to shower originally during my stay at SGH, which led to my considerable stress.
“It was only when I reminded them that I am a pained patient at SGH that I was finally allowed to go to the proper toilet, given access to shower facilities, and was able to brush my teeth at the sink. All the while, of course, while I’m being chained to the bar while I was showering, brushing my teeth, and going to the toilet.”
I suppose the police should feel apologetic for the less-than-unsanitary treatment?
Except just days prior, your mental state was also in question when you complained about having anxiety and panic attacks, only to refuse any medical assessments when the authorities offered to bring you to the Institute of Health?
Her Defence Against Spreading Misinformation
Next, Koh announces that she is not guilty of the charge of cheating the Ministry of Health (MOH) and adds that this wasn’t the first time MOH has targeted her.
Apparently last November, MOH had cited that she was spreading misinformation and used that as a pretext to remove one of her YouTube videos.
However, she finds the entire ‘spreading of misinformation’ odd, because ever since she started Healing the Divide, everything she has written and produced for the community, and the Zoom meetings she has hosted with international and local doctors had not been met with any government resistance, nor had she received any Protection from Online Falsehood and Manipulation Act (POFMA) Notices.
By that logic, her organisation has done nothing wrong, or said anything wrong.
Contradictions in her Speech
But herein lies the problem:
Much later in her speech, Koh states a few questionable points:
- Healing the Divide is an alternative platform for Singapore, where people can speak up against the vaccine mandates.
- When the Vaccination-Differentiation Safety Management (VDS) Measures kicked in during mid-October last year, HTD started providing grocery packs to those who could no longer go into dining establishments and/or lost their jobs
- HTD launched the Neighbours for Neighbours program to provide emotional comfort and solace to those who were displaced and disenfranchised by the sudden vaccine mandates.
- She expressed that some did not want to take the experimental gene therapy, that from our research, is potentially life-threatening
- She voiced her concerns about the newest VDS measure where people are expected to take their booster jabs come 15 February, or they will be faced with ‘No Jab, No Job’.
And the pièce de resistance to it all is that Iris Koh said: “Only with science and logic, can we end this pandemic forever.”
Breaking Down Her Arguments
First and foremost, Singapore’s National Vaccination Programme started in December 2020.
Between December 2020 and October 2021, the arrangement of vaccinations by age batches has never stopped, which means there were a full 11 months to get partially vaccinated before the VDS measures kicked in during mid-October 2021.
By 25 October 2051, 84% of the eligible population had completed the vaccine regimen, and 85% had received at least one dose.
The risk of losing jobs if an individual is not inoculated in Singapore only became a real threat this year, around 15 January.
Secondly, Singapore has always acknowledged that there will be individuals with different constitutions who will suffer from severe side effects because of the vaccines.
I don’t know what kind of statistics Iris Koh has been sharing in her Zoom meetings, or if she’s talking on a global scale, but in the case of Singapore, there have only been 296 patients that were eligible for the Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme (VIFAP).
The VIFAP was specifically established to give a one-time pay out to any Singaporean or Permanent Resident who suffers from side-effects, offering additional medical coverage to ensure that the individual doesn’t have to bear the financial strain of their vaccine mandates.
Thus far, only two people have qualified for the Tier 1, which is when the vaccine results in death or severe disability.
The Pros and Cons of Vaccination
Thirdly, the mRNA vaccinations come with its risks, that is true.
But the benefits largely outweigh the minimised risks.
Pharmaceutical companies didn’t simply throw out a half-baked product and declared it problem solved; no, it had taken scientists and researchers months upon months of repeated testing and trialling before they declared that it was safe for humans.
Even after the vaccine’s release, they continued to improve on them so it can counteract the new variants, taking even longer before they decided that children—arguably the most vulnerable group to both the virus and invasive changes—were safe to be administered the vaccines as well, albeit in smaller doses.
Most of us have suffered from mild side-effects like joint pains, but the threat to life is nowhere as exaggerated as she presumes to be.
Don’t just look at Singapore; look at the European continent with high rates of vaccination, or America and China, the vaccinations have done more harm than good.
Even amidst the Omicron waves that have caused shocking figures of infection, 99.7% of the patients were either asymptotic or barely suffered from any symptoms, and they might not have known at all unless they took the Antigen Rapid Tests (ARTs) or the Polymerase Chain Test (PCR).
There is no greater proof of the vaccine’s effectiveness in combating COVID-19 than this.
By emphasising on the life-threatening risk, giving alternatives to unvaccinated people instead of encouraging them to get vaccinated, that technically counts as spreading misinformation.
In the middle of a viral pandemic, the creation and continuous improvements to the vaccines are the epitome of science and logic which can end the pandemic forever.
Therefore, Ms Iris Koh, your argument is inconsistent and flawed.
Vaccine Validity
Judging from her opposition against the newest VDS measure, it’s quite apparent that Iris Koh isn’t as informed as she seems.
On 15 February effectively, members of Singapore have at least nine months starting from after when they finished their primary vaccination regimen to get their booster shots, or else they will be considered as unvaccinated.
Their vaccination statuses don’t simply disappear into thin air after 15 February comes like a wisp of drifting smoke.
Frankly speaking, nine months is a very generous period of time as it is.
Abetting in a Conspiracy of False Information
Lastly, Iris Koh addresses her main charge of abetting in a conspiracy of providing false information.
According to Koh’s statement, she said: “In December last year, we cooperated with Mr Quah to provide remote PET tests for our unvaccinated members, so they can continue to go to work. We were just clients of the clinic and was doing our part to help the unvaccinated in our community. We did not do anymore in the clinic to cheat the MOH.”
Allegedly, what landed Iris Koh, Jipson Quah, and Thomas Chua in this entire ordeal stemmed from this.
Wan Medical Clinic—which Dr Quah runs—partnered with Koh to offer “remote” ART Pre-Event Testing (PET) to members of HTD.
However, the MOH has made it clear that PETs must be conducted in real time and in the presence of a registered medical practitioner or qualified self-administered supervisor. Recording PETs from their homes and submitting it to the clinic does not count.
Test providers of unsupervised PETs can face a fine not exceeding $5,000, a prison term not exceeding three months, or both.
That’s strike one.
For Dr Jipson Quah, his offence of conspiring to dupe the MOH with fake COVID-19 information was amended to a more serious offence, which was dishonestly making a false representation to the Ministry.
According to Koh’s Telegram video, she was only involved in referring her HTD members, at least 20 of them, to Dr Quah’s clinics and her involvement ended there.
Whereas Dr Quah is in hotter waters because he allegedly submitted false positive ART results to the Patient Risk Profile Portal, the national healthcare system used by doctors to upload ART results and patient information.
In uploading a positive result and later recovery, the patient will then be given a grace period of 180-days where the VDS measures do not apply to them, because they technically “recovered from COVID-19” and thereby have immunity.
Another accusation laid against Dr Quah is the fact that he claimed that patients had been administered the Sinopharm Vaccines when they hadn’t been to obtain false certification of vaccinations.
It’s unknown if Koh has any involvement, or instigated this, but tentatively she seems to be taking the Assistant Thomas Chua route where she’s proclaiming that she was merely the middleman, the connection between the doctors and patient.
Koh appears to be unaware of the actions that Dr Jipson had taken behind the scenes.
Whether that is true, and will it dissolve her burden of guilt remains untold until she officially stands trial next week.
The Things Unspoken
Although it was a long video, there were some explanations that were conspicuously missing.
Koh did not address the charge concerning the flooding of COVID-19 hotlines or instigating her group to overwhelm the paediatrician centres for children vaccination drives with questions.
Nor has she talked about what came out of the police reports she made on the evening of February 8, besides the fact that she is now under a new Investigating Officer.
I can almost hear Inspector Ho breathing out a sigh of relief as he lets go of this hot potato and tells his colleague, “Here, she’s your problem now.”
If you’re interested in watching her entire speech (which almost put me to sleep), that has generic sentimental music in the background, you can view it on her Telegram group.
Just make sure your stomach can handle it, because her ardent belief that she’s still correct and wholly innocent in the circumstance can give rise to quite a bit of bile.
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Featured Image: Telegram (Healing the Divide)
